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Di Brandt
Di Brandt (born Jan 31, 1952) is an award-winning Canadian poet and literary critic. Life Brandt was born Diana Ruth Janzen in Winkler, Manitoba. She was raised in Reinland, a conservative, separatist Mennonite village in Southern Manitoba. She is a twin; she and her fraternal twin sister are the middle children, born between an older brother and a younger sister. She left home at the age of 17 and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, to attend college. While there she met and married Manitoba-born artist Les Brandt, with whom she had 2 daughters. She earned a B.A. from the University of Manitoba, then an M.A. at the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Manitoba. She has taught Canadian literature and creative writing at the universities of Winnipeg, 1985-1995; Manitoba, 1983-1993; Alberta, 1996-1997; Windsor, 1997-2005; and Brandon, Manitoba, where she holds the position of Canada Research Chair, 2005-present. She was writer in residence at the University of Alberta in 1995-1996, and SSHRC Research Fellow in Canadian literature at the University of Alberta in 1996-1998. She has given literary readings, lectures, performances and workshops across Canada and around the world, including at the Universities of Trier, Germany; Graz, Austria; Aarhus, Denmark; Chiba, Japan; Canada House in London, UK; the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo; the Arts and Cultural Centre in Jerusalem; Chateau de Lavigny, Switzerland; and the 13th International Poetry Festival in Medellin, Colombia, in 2005. Brandt has published 8 collections of poetry. She has also published 2 books of essays, and a critical study of contemporary Canadian women's texts. She is a former poetry editor of Prairie Fire Magazine and Contemporary Verse 2. She co-edited 2 volumes of proceedings from the conference/festival, Wider Boundaries of Daring: The modernist impulse in Canadian women's poetry (University of Windsor, 2001), with Barbara Godard, of York University. She co-produced Planet Earth, a musical CD featuring settings of Canadian women's poetry by well known composers like Violet Archer, Barbara Pentland, Chester Duncan, Jana Skarecky, Paul McIntyre, and others (which premiered at the Wider Boundaries conference/festival), together with Godard, Jana Skarecky, and Brenda Muller. Her poetry suite, Sweet Sweet Blood premiered at the Sounding in the Land music conference at the University of Waterloo in May 2004. As a juror for the 2008 Governor General's Awards, Brandt was at the centre of some controversy. Recognition Brandt has received the Canadian Authors Association National Poetry Award, the McNally Robinson Award for Manitoba Book of the Year, and the Gerald Lampert Award, and has been twice shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry, as well as the Dillons Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been set to music, and adapted for theatre, CD, film, video, radio, television, multimedia performance, and dance. Awards *Gerald Lampert Award, for questions i asked my mother, 1987. *Shortlisted, Governor General's Award, for poetry, for questions i asked my mother, 1987. *Shortlisted, Dillons Commonwealth Poetry Prize, for questions i asked my mother, 1988. *McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award, for Agnes in the sky, 1990. *Silver National Magazine Award, for the sound the wind makes, New Quarterly, 1995. *Canadian Authors' Association National Poetry Award, for Jerusalem, beloved, 1995. *Shortlisted, Governor General's Award, for Jerusalem, beloved, 1995. *Shortlisted, Griffin Poetry Prize, for Now You Care, 2004. *Shortlisted, Pat Lowther Award, for Now You Care, 2004. *Shortlisted, Trillium Prize for Best Book, for Now You Care, 2004. Publications Poetry *''questions i asked my mother''. Winnipeg, MB: Turnstone Press, 1987. *''Agnes in the Sky''. Winnipeg, MB: Turnstone Press, 1990. *''Jerusalem, Beloved''. Winnipeg, MB: Turnstone Press, 1995. *''Mother, Not Mother: Poems''. Stratford. ON: Mercury Press, 1992. *''Now You Care''. Toronto, Coach House, 2003; New York: Coach House, 2011. **''Bouquet for St. Mary''. London, ON: Pendas Productions, 2004. *''The Lottery of History''. Brandon, MB: Radish Press, 2008. *''Speaking of Power: The poetry of Di Brandt'' (edited by Tanis Macdonald). Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006. Non-fiction *''Being Brothers and Sisters: Stories of personal need in the church''. Newton, KS: Faith & Life Press, 1984. *''Wild Mother Dancing: Maternal narrative in Canadian literature''. Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press, 1993. *''Dancing Naked: Narrative strategies for writing across centuries''. Stratford, ON: Mercury Press, 1996. *''So This is the world and Here I am in It'' (essays). Edmonton, AB: NeWest Press, 2007. Edited *''Wider Boundaries of Daring: The modernist impulse in Canadian women's poetry'' (edited with Barbara Godard). (2 volumes), Waterloo, ON Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Di Brandt, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 29, 2017. Audio / video * Awakenings (poetry/music CD with Dorothy Livesay (posthumously), Carol Ann Weaver, Jane Siberrry, & Rebecca Campbell). Waterloo, ON: C.A. Weaver, 2003. See also *List of Canadian poets *List of literary critics References External links ;Poems *"Early Spring Thaw" ;Audio / video *Di Brandt at YouTube ;About *Di Brandt in the Canadian Encyclopedia *Di Brandt at NeWest Press *Griffin Poetry Prize biography *Di Brandt at Writers in Electronic Residence *Interview with Di Brandt, Arc, 2006 Category:1952 births Category:Canadian Mennonites Category:Canadian poets Category:Canada Research Chairs Category:Canadian women writers Category:Living people Category:Mennonite writers Category:People from Winkler, Manitoba Category:University of Manitoba alumni Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Canadian academics